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Sequestration bites Lebanon School District

By JOHN LATIMER

Lebanon Daily News

Updated:
04/23/2013 11:44:18 AM EDT

Sequestration - the fancy fiscal word that means indiscriminate across-the-board federal funding cuts - is creating a budget crisis for the Lebanon School District by creating a nearly $334,000 shortfall that could cost nearly 20 people their jobs.

Lebanon school directors learned Monday night that the biggest impact will likely be felt by elementary-school teacher aides who are slated to lose their positions because the Title I federal programming that pays their salaries is being slashed as part of the automatic federal funding cuts resulting from Congress' inability to come to a budget compromise. Two Title I teaching positions, one for literacy instruction and the other a fifth grade teaching position, will also lose be eliminated, although that is expected to occur by attrition.

Business manager Curt Richards put it simply to the school board at the specially convened budget workshop meeting when he said, "Sequestration was not on my radar in December."

December was when Richards was preparing a "worst-case scenario" preliminary budget for the district that factored in rising fixed costs but kept state and federal funding flat.

Some relief was found in February in Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed budget, and last month the district was preparing a $58.5 million budget requiring a nearly 5 percent tax increase of 6.1 mills - the maximum permitted after the Pennsylvania Department of Education approved the district's request to lift a previous cap of 3.2 mills.

But even 6.

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1 mills will not cover the shortfall created by sequestration, so the district is left with the uncomfortable choice of having to cut positions, Superintendent Marianne Bartley told the school directors.

It was the same situation in which the district found itself in 2011, when 22 positions were eliminated.

"We don't have a lot left to cut," Bartley said. Other possible cost-saving options include cutting extracurricular programs in art, music and sports. But Bartley said that would hurt the district in the long run by removing the support system provided by coaches and other mentors.

"I wouldn't recommend getting rid of our sports programs," she said. "Because when you look at the whole child, we know our students who are involved in extracurriculars and sports benefit tremendously and it also helps them academically."

Dual enrollment, which allows high-school students to earn college credits, costs the district $30,000 and is also not required. But Bartley told the directors she believes it is worth it.

"Having those programs keeps us competitive," she said.

School Director Debra Bowman noted that teacher aides help by keeping order in classrooms, and without them academics may suffer.

"It scares me, a little bit," she said. "I don't know where else we can cut, and I'm not saying you are wrong in doing this. I just think it is going to have more of an impact than some people realize."

Bartley agreed, but said that while losing teacher aides is a blow to the district, it will preserve essential education programs.

"It does impact classrooms but the school can still run, is basically why we are starting here," she said.

Longtime school director Mike Kuhn said there is no choice but to make the spending cuts.

"I think you are on the right track," he said. "The revenue is not there. We have to cut something. We can't keep going back to the taxpayers. ... We have to make some tough decisions."

The spending cuts proposed Monday include reductions in some program spending and reassigning a fifth-grade teacher to fill an existing vacancy.

In total, they will save $465,000 and reduce the necessary tax increase to 5 mills. That would raise the district's millage rate from 123.44 to 128.44 mills.

A mill of taxes generates about $120,000 for the district and is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of property-tax value.

For budget planning purposes, the district is still operating under the pre-reassessment tax rates while waiting for the appeals process to be finalized. The revised figure should be established by June 30 when the budget must be passed and tax bills are sent out.

For the owner of a home assessed at the district average of about $15,000 under the old assessed value - equal to a current market valued of $100,000 - a 5 mill increase will raise taxes bout $75 a year, increasing the total tax bill from $1,852 to $1,927.